A pub manager who lost his job when it emerged he had failed to disclose a spent criminal conviction has had his tribunal claim for unfair dismissal rejected.

Paul Miller was taken on as the general manager of The British on North Quay, Douglas, in August last year.

He had come to the island from the London area after some 13 years’ experience in the pub and hospitality industry.

But he was dismissed by Okell’s Inns Limited in October when it was revealed that he had failed to declare that he had a spent conviction when he applied for a licence to be the pub’s designated official.

Police said they could not support his application as he had not been honest when signing the declaration.

In its dismissal letter, his employer said the issue around his spent convictions presented a reputational risk to the business with the licensing committee and the local constabulary.

At the date of his dismissal, Mr Miller was still in a probationary period.

He argued that the reason he lost his job was that he had raised concerns about what he believed to be a fire hazard at the pub, and had also made allegations about the conduct of another employee who has subsequently left the company.

The employment tribunal accepted Mr Miller had made protected disclosures in good faith.

But it rejected his submission that either protected disclosure had any material influence on the decision to dismiss.

Unanimously dismissing his claim for unfair dismissal, the tribunal panel concluded that the reason for his dismissal had been a fair one given he had been refused a licence as he did not qualify for the role for which he had been hired.

It described it as an ‘unusual, and possibly unprecedented’ situation for the company.